Adam Phetlhe
Very few people will be averse to the review of the Botswana Constitution and the establishment of political party funding. What some of them will be unhappy with is how the two processes unfolded. With the Constitutional Review process, it has become very clear that it won’t be wrong to refer to it as the Masisi Constitutional Review process because President Masisi solely crafted and implemented its terms of reference and solely as well, appointed the Commissioners. As the nation awaits with bated breath the tabling of the White Paper on Constitutional Review in parliament, it is a foregone conclusion that what is contained in it will be what President Masisi wants to be included in the final document. Essentially, the Commissioners acted like political appointees serving at the behest of the President and crucially, serving his political interests. Even before the Commissioners could conclude the process, the President and Minister Morwaeng criticised the suggestion by many Batswana who wanted the direct election of the President to be included in the reviewed Constitution. The two read Batswana the Riot Act that they must refrain from advocating for the direct election of the President. Delivering her budget speech on 5 February 2024, the Minister of Finance Hon Peggy Serame took everyone by surprise when she announced that her government has decided to allocate P 34 million to fund political parties.
Political party funding is a complex dispensation that would have required a great deal of consultation and dialogue from the wider constituency of political parties themselves and other civil society organisations that are not in the conventional political space. It should be appreciated that political party funding is a new concept in Botswana’s political discourse and therefore, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government cannot claim it is endowed with all the wisdom, know-how and the expertise to deliver political funding on its own. I am of the view that with the BDP chanting the Mindset Change, Are Chencheng and the no one should be left behind slogans, it should have occurred to it that all key stakeholders that would be affected one way or the other by the political party funding dispensation had to be thoroughly and genuinely consulted. As it stands and consequent to the fact that a budget and the guidelines on how political funding will be implemented may very well be decided and determined by the BDP government, the All Party Conference called for 1 March 2024 and which forum will discuss political party funding will be fait accompli. It will be one of those meetings between government and political parties where boxes will be ticked and such masquerading as consultation of sorts.
When political party funding was mooted in Kenya, a document titled ‘Public Funding of Political Parties published in 2002 says under the subheading ‘Participatory development of the Political Parties Fund Bill’ that ‘The Political Parties Fund Bill is the product of extensive and intensive consultations between political parties. The first workshop on the funding of political parties took place in 1999. All the key stakeholders, including political parties, Members of Parliament, the Electoral Commission of Kenya and civil society organisations, attended it’. In Botswana’s case, it would appear the Bill on political party funding is already crafted and will merely be presented to parliament for rubberstamping by the majority party as it has become the norm. Opposition political parties will not have had an input on the Bill yet it directly affects them.
Consultation or dialogue in this instance cannot be made when decisions have already been made. Why is dialogue on political party funding important? In a vibrant democracy, political party funding is an important component in the democracy equation that enhances the said democracy. Dialogue would create a platform where political parties and other key stakeholders would be given an opportunity to present their inputs on how best the dispensation would work fairly for each other; it would create a buy-in; it would win confidence from stakeholders and the general public that the dispensation is created to level as far as possible, the playing field for all concerned. It goes without saying that government would have an equal chance to present her views. The BDP government is obsessed with the view that because it is the ruling party, it calls the shots where it is its way or the highway. Government has portrayed herself as highly consultative on major decisions affecting the nation but the opposite has turned out to true. The Constitutional Review process and now the political party funding dispensation are the living examples that Batswana are taken for granted.
For avoidance of doubt, Constitutional review and political party funding are welcome developments whose objectives I believe, are to enhance Botswana’s democratic credentials. The voices from other sections of the population are not rejecting the noble principles as some suggest but the manner in which government has handled them in terms of conceptualising and presenting them to the nation. These voices are simply and justifiably saying nothing for us without us. The arbitrary and seemingly highhandedness manner in which government approaches matters of national importance is occasioned by the fact that government is, as already alluded to, preoccupied with the mantra ‘we have won elections to govern’. It is common knowledge that BDP is a party in government. This mantra however flies against the posture that government is consultative and would not take major decisions without consulting and engaging the citizenry on the same.
Like the Constitutional review process, the political party funding process has started on the wrong footing hence the ‘dissenting voices’ from other sections of the population. Botswana’s democratic credentials cannot be nurtured and enhanced by political funding when key stakeholders are consulted as a convenient afterthought meant to tick the boxes that consultation had taken place. The false start of political party funding is in the circumstance, bound not to achieve that what it was intended for. When transparency is faked, it will surely deliver fake results. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!
*All the best to Ms Lesego Chombo who is representing us well in India.